1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a composition determining apparatus to perform a process about a composition of image content on still image data or the like and to a composition determining method. Also, the present invention relates to a program executed by the apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
One of technical factors for taking a photo giving a good impression is composition setting. The term “composition” here is also called “framing” and is layout of a subject in an image as a photo or the like.
There are some typical and basic methods for obtaining a good composition. However, it is far from easy for an ordinary camera user to take a photo of a good composition unless he/she has sufficient knowledge and technique about photography. For this reason, a technical configuration enabling a user to readily and easily obtain a photo image of a good composition is demanded.
For example, Patent Document 1 (Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 59-208983) discloses a technical configuration of an automatic tracking apparatus. In this technical configuration, a difference between images of a regular time interval is detected, a barycenter of the difference between the images is calculated, an imaging apparatus is controlled by detecting the amount and direction of movement of a subject image with respect to an imaging screen based on the amount and direction of movement of the barycenter, and the subject image is set in a reference area of the imaging screen.
Also, Patent Document 2 (Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2001-268425) discloses a technique about an automatic tracking apparatus. In this technique, a person is automatically tracked with the area of upper 20% of the entire person on a screen being at the center of the screen so that the face of the person is positioned at the center of the screen, whereby the person can be tracked while his/her face being reliably shot.
When those technical configurations are viewed from a viewpoint of deciding a composition, it is possible to automatically search for a subject as a person and place the subject in an imaging screen with a predetermined composition.